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Chocolate chip cookie devotees in Miami are about to have a very good year. Levain Bakery, the cult-favorite New York bakery famous for its thick, gooey cookies, will open its first standalone shop in Coconut Grove later this year.
The bakery has filed permits for a location at 2979 McFarlane Road, placing it right in the middle of the Grove’s growing dessert scene, near artisanal donut shop The Salty. A spokesperson confirmed the expansion to WhatNow Miami, saying the “30-year-old bakery renowned for its big, beloved cookies will open in Coconut Grove, Florida this fall,” with more details expected soon.
Levain began in 1995 as a tiny neighborhood bakery on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, founded by friends Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald. At first, the shop focused mainly on bread and baguettes. But when the pair started baking oversized chocolate-chip walnut cookies to fuel their triathlon training runs, they stumbled upon what would become one of the most famous cookies in America.
The dense, fist-sized cookies—crispy on the outside and molten in the middle—quickly took on a life of their own. Locals began lining up for them, then visitors started making special trips just to grab a box. Over time, Levain became a must-stop food destination for New Yorkers and tourists alike.
Three decades later, the bakery has expanded far beyond that original Upper West Side shop, with locations across the country, including California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. Miami will mark the brand’s first permanent outpost in the city.
The cookies have also picked up plenty of celebrity fans along the way. Taylor Swift once raved about them in a 2015 interview with Glamour, writing, “The way you feel when you’re carrying a box of freshly baked chocolate chip and walnut cookies that are each THE SIZE OF YOUR FIST is worth the journey. Then you bite into them and you realise that this moment was destiny. You were born to eat this cookie.”
Other well-known Levain devotees include Kylie Jenner, Giada De Laurentiis and Oprah Winfrey, who has previously featured the bakery on her show.
Miami fans have technically had a small taste of Levain before. In 2021, the bakery partnered with the delivery app Caviar for a limited South Beach collaboration. But the new Coconut Grove shop will make those famous cookies available year-round—and fresh out of the oven.
And while the cookies may be the main attraction, Levain hasn’t forgotten its roots. The bakery still produces the breads and pastries it started with, meaning Miami locals will have plenty more than chocolate chip cookies to line up for when the doors open this fall.